The Girl They Said Wasn't Enough She was born in Chicago in 1968. Before her second birthday, her family relocated to London. She spent nearly a decade there, growing up with a distinctly British accent that became part of who she was. Then, at 11 years old, everything shifted. Her family moved again, this time to Grand Rapids, Michigan. The accent that once felt natural suddenly made her a target. Classmates mocked the way she spoke, so she slowly trained herself to sound American. It was a survival skill more than a choice. But fitting in wasn't easy. As a teenager, she became known for pushing boundaries. She was outspoken, rebellious, and often in trouble. Her classmates even voted her "Most Likely to Get Arrested." On graduation night, she lived up to the reputation by breaking into her high school and being charged with trespassing. Concerned about her direction, her mother took her to therapy when she was 14. It became a turning point. Over time, she discovered an outlet for her energy and frustration: acting. She studied theatre in Chicago and graduated in 1990. Soon after, she headed to New York City with little more than determination and a dream. Life wasn't glamorous. She worked restaurant jobs to cover rent while auditioning and performing in small stage productions. Success remained out of reach. In 1992, she packed up again and moved to Los Angeles. For months, auditions led nowhere. Then came the opportunity that would change everything. In 1993, she auditioned for a new Fox series about FBI agents investigating unexplained phenomena. The role was Dana Scully. She was competing against established actresses with recognizable names and stronger industry connections. At 24 years old, she was still largely unknown. But creator Chris Carter saw something special. While others focused on what she lacked, Carter focused on what she brought to the character. He fought to keep her in contention, even as network executives resisted. Fox reportedly wanted a more obvious sex symbol, someone who fit the television mold of the era. Carter refused to back down. Eventually, she won the role. When The X-Files premiered in 1993, few people expected it to become a cultural phenomenon. Yet audiences quickly connected with the intelligent, skeptical Dana Scully. Then another challenge arrived. Only months into filming, Anderson learned she was pregnant. At just 25 years old and starring in her first major television series, she worried the network might replace her altogether. The fear wasn't unfounded. Production scrambled to hide her pregnancy through camera angles, oversized clothing, and creative staging. Eventually, the writers incorporated her absence into the story through Scully's abduction arc. After delivering her daughter by cesarean section, Anderson returned to work only 10 days later. Years later, she admitted she felt enormous pressure to prove she deserved her place on the show. She pushed through exhaustion and recovery because she feared losing the opportunity she'd fought so hard to earn. The challenges didn't stop there. Early in the series, network executives reportedly instructed that her character walk slightly behind her male co-star rather than beside him. The message was hard to miss. For the first three seasons, she was also paid less than her co-star despite sharing the same workload and carrying equal importance to the show's success. Rather than accept it, she kept pushing. Eventually, after years of persistence, she secured equal pay. As The X-Files grew into one of television's biggest hits, Anderson became a household name. The series ran for nine seasons, turning its stars into global icons. Then, more than a decade later, history repeated itself. In 2016, Fox revived the show. By then, Anderson was no longer an unknown actress trying to prove herself. She was a two-time Emmy winner, a two-time Golden Globe winner, and one of television's most respected performers. Yet when contract negotiations began, she was reportedly offered only half of what her co-star would receive. This time, she didn't stay quiet. She spoke publicly about the situation and challenged the offer. The studio eventually revised the deal, and both leads received equal compensation. Meanwhile, her career continued to flourish. She earned multiple Screen Actors Guild Awards, portrayed Margaret Thatcher, starred in acclaimed dramas, and won praise for her role as a candid sex therapist's mother in a hit comedy series. That same year, 2016, she received another remarkable honor. She was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her contributions to drama. The rebellious teenager once voted "Most Likely to Get Arrested" now held one of Britain's most prestigious honors. The actress once dismissed as not glamorous enough became one of the defining faces of modern television. Her greatest achievement wasn't simply the awards, the fame, or the iconic roles. It was her refusal to stop fighting for the opportunities, respect, and recognition she had already earned.

About 11 years ago, with our very talented Annapurna team and informed by the unusual scale and insight we had in operating the largest cloud infrastructure, we decided to design and build our own CPU chip. This CPU chip is now known as Graviton, and is well-loved by our AWS customers. About 98% of our top 1,000 EC2 customers use Graviton expansively. Over 120,000 customers are using Graviton. Meta just committed to tens of millions of Graviton cores for their agentic AI efforts. Uber and Snowflake are deploying Graviton as well. Today, we released Graviton5 into General Availability. The reason customers are so excited about Graviton is that it offers about 30-40% better price-performance than comparable instances. This is a big deal at any scale. But, when you layer on top of how much CPU customers normally use with the fact that AI’s growth is driving explosive CPU expansion given that post-training, reinforcement learning, and agentic actions use CPU, Graviton becomes even more compelling. Excited for how Graviton5 will help customers.

11 years ago today, Ethereum’s genesis block was mined DeFi, NFTs, and smart contracts as an entire industry all built on top of what started with this one block happy birthday ethereum:native 🥳

After 11 years as a sports columnist at the Seattle Times, I have decided to resign. It was entirely my choice, and it was not an easy one. The impetus was the Times declining to run a column I wrote from the perspective of two female student athletes who were opposed to competing against biological males. It was one of several pieces of mine that had been spiked, and I no longer felt like I could properly do my job as a columnist. I lay out the situation in greater detail in the link below, but I want to say that I enjoyed my time with the paper, find the talent there to be immense, and have no animosity toward anyone who works there. It was just time for a change.